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Once you learn a trade they can never take it away. Im just returning back to HVAC after a working for the railroad in a railroad town. A dream job in these parts. Out of the blue they came in a shut the yard down, and cut 200 plus jobs. I was out of work 2 or so weeks. While most of my bro's are loseing there trucks and houses I didnt miss a paycheck. Stick it out and take in as much as you can. Even if you change careers later on down the road knowing a trade can be a lifesaver.

Absolutely.
The technical trades will always have a demand since unskilled illiterate labor cannot do the job we do. Anybody can chop wood, bang nails and call themselves a framer/carpenter, same with tiling, painting, dry walling etc.

Electrical, plumbing, hvac much harder, you need to be able to read well (manuals), communicate issues and solutions to customers.
It's getting to the point where good, knowledgeble people are impossible to find, I know of several hvac contractors who make more than doctors or lawyers. Yet you'll never know it because they dress in tatty jeans, work boots and haven't shaved in a few days.

Point is technical people who can actually fix something are getting harder to find.
I find it hilarious when I go to a couple of my accounts and there's a bunch of nicely dressed office guys standing around hitting on everything female but have no idea what a thermostat is or wtf is going on.
I wander up, safety glass, guages slung across the chest, hunch of stuff clipped to belt and people wonder if I'm some air conditioning "Rambo".

Secretaries and office girls approach me and ask who am I? What am I doing? Etc. etc.
It's honestly a great perk of hvac. Why? becuase its a total ****ing mystery to most people.
Ask any women and she'll tell you there's something sexy about a man who can fix stuff.

Anyways, a skilled trade is definitely worth getting into. The harder and more technical the better. You're guaranteeing job security. (Well until China starts shipping guys over to take our jobs...)

Here in Canada, there is definitely a growing demand for skilled trades workers. There are many government incentives for both men and woman to pursue a career in a skilled trade, such as apprenticeship grants.

The truth be told, atleast with the younger generation, not many like to get their hands dirty anymore.

Here in Canada, there is definitely a growing demand for skilled trades workers. There are many government incentives for both men and woman to pursue a career in a skilled trade, such as apprenticeship grants.

The truth be told, atleast with the younger generation, not many like to get their hands dirty anymore.

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Or do math or use their brains to solve problems in order to receive a paycheck

Learn all you can - especially REFRIGERATION. Once you know refrigeration, everything else falls into place. I went from working in lots of icky restaurants to a dreamy job where I only touch refrigeration about once a week. The company needed someone who knew refrigeration because some of the big contract customers demanded it. The rest of the guys were scared of it so they needed a go to guy on the team. I happened to be in the right place at the right time. Also - don't be afraid of something you have never worked on before. Learn it, make some phone calls if need be, get some help, but never tell your boss "I can't do it"

I think if i was unemployed than i find any job that will help you in earning some money to meet your day to day expense like you start any online business that need no more money to invest in that.But you have some skill of that work.

I second the fact that some women like men with tools. I am meeting someone tonight from a dating website and she loves the fact that i work in a dirty field. I sent her pics of me working and she gets excited, and its really me just holding a wrench and pulling a strainer. I dated a woman who does office work for an hvac supplier, and she usually dates men who work in technical trades, she finds them manly and useful. I also met one woman who only dated men in the field, she said her man better be good at fixing and labor because she was good at cooking and nurturing (which i find sexy on a woman, which i assume is what these women feel about men in the field).

I understand you're frustrated it's hard to get a foothold when you're starting out in this type of work. Employers tend to make sure to keep there top people working when it's slow. It just makes sense, it's hard to find a good tech and sometimes it's even harder to keep him. With that being said I can share with you a couple of things I learned when I first got into the trades.
Take the cotton out of you're ears and put it in you're mouth. I don't say that trying to be mean but the older techs don't want to here it. If they send you down 10 flights of stiars 10 times a day do it with a smile on you're face and thay will train you. Even better when it's time to lay people off for the season that old tech will want to keep you around.
Invest in you're self and do you're best to make you're self indispensable to the co and you will always have a good job.
When you're starting out you have to put in you're time and remember that all those old techs had to do the same.

Amen, can't stand it when a helper moans and groans about doing the b**** work.

Learn all you can - especially REFRIGERATION. Once you know refrigeration, everything else falls into place. I went from working in lots of icky restaurants to a dreamy job where I only touch refrigeration about once a week. The company needed someone who knew refrigeration because some of the big contract customers demanded it. The rest of the guys were scared of it so they needed a go to guy on the team. I happened to be in the right place at the right time. Also - don't be afraid of something you have never worked on before. Learn it, make some phone calls if need be, get some help, but never tell your boss "I can't do it"

That's funny, a chiller rep called me the other day looking for somebody to work on a couple redundant chillers they sold to a manufacturing plant. I said sure we do, had no idea what I was gettin into. I've worked on plenty of smaller chillers 100tons and less. Get out there and they are used to cool a 30,000 gallon tank of cyclopentane or some highly flammable stuff with all kinds of crazy controls and networking cables hooked to them, luckily it was easy. One had a bad pressure differential switch and tge other had a discharge line leak. Changed switch on one, fixed leak on the other vacuum charge and I'm they're new go to guy.

I wont recommend getting into the HVAC trade, its a back breaking job, we need to know a lot and the pay is kind of crappy.
My brother in law sells bearings for a living and makes twice more $$$ without getting dirt on his hands